Only action No oration- The why, The what, and The how of Community Medicine 2.0!

Abstract

All through, the second half of twentieth century ‘community medicine’ has evolved from its forerunner ‘preventive & social medicine’ (PSM).(1)But this was not the Darwinian evolution; instead, it was merely a ‘naam-karan’ rather than being a much needed ‘bhoomi-poojan’ for the advancement of this specialty.(1) It would had been better, if the heavy weightsof this field would have given more stresson style of teaching community medicine.(2)It would be misdemeanour if we again change its name to ‘community and family medicine’ or ‘public health medicine’ or any other charming or sophisticated name we can think off.The role of community medicine is to make communities ‘healthy’ by making every citizen ‘healthier’, which is has far reaching effects as compared to just ‘curing’ illnesses. To accomplish this, a community physician should have expertizes in a host of scientific disciplines including various clinical specialties. He/she should be skilled enough to understand the determinants (biological, environmental and social), and course of diseases in an individual and the community.(3)Thus we need to think beyond just teaching epidemiology and bio-statistics; rather we should integrate newer fields such as evidence based medicine, health system & policy research, and overall public health leadership in training curricula.(4)In addition to ensuring the metamorphosis of a student into a proficient community physician we should also sharpen their clinical skills. For this, it is vital to focus on skills which will empower a community physician to treat most common illnesses affecting members of a family in different age groups.(5)